The Gogbot festival
Posted on 19 september, 2017 at 10:30
A view weeks ago I went to the Gogbot festival. The city centre of Enschede was transformed into a science fiction world. There were all kinds of robots, virtual reality glasses, interactive games and many other things.
Together with some friends I walked around and looked at many of the installations. Below are two installations that I picked. The first one is the installation I liked the most and the second one is the installation that irritated me the most.
Museum of the moon - the installation I liked the most
The moment I arrived at the ´grote markt´, this big moon caught my eye. When I was younger I was quite fascinated by the moon and the stars. I would stare out of my window at night and look up. Or sometimes my dad and I drove to some dark place without the lights of the city, and we would lay in the grass and look up to the sky. I’m a few years older now, but I was still pleasantly surprised when I saw the moon shining so bright above the Gogbot festival. The moon looked very realistic. I liked this installation the most, because finally I could see the moon from close by, instead of the tiny silver ball I normally see when I look out of my window. Another thing that I liked, was the simplicity. It was just hanging in the air. No movement, no sounds, no special effects. But because of that, it felt more real and purer. It gave a magical atmosphere to the church square.
Installation by Heidi Hörsturz – the installation that irritated me the most
When I entered the church and walked upstairs, I was quite overwhelmed by this installation. There was so much flashing light that you couldn’t really focus. The sounds were so loud that you couldn’t talk to the person who was standing next to you. There were digital pictures of strange things, and together they formed an even stranger unit.
Some days later, when I did some research about this installation, I found out that my reaction on this artwork was exactly what the artist wanted. Heidi Hörsturz makes work that ‘research the connection between noise, artificial overstimulation and constructed visual associations’. She thinks that our society has a rapidly shrinking attention span. That’s why she makes artwork that causes overstimulation.
When I visited Gogbot festival, I found this the most annoying and strange installation. I spent 30 seconds in the room before my head started to spin and I left again. But after I did some research, I must admit that I like the idea behind the installation and it’s less irritating to me.